The Oracle
by gameloverx
Summary: She had waited a trillion years to finally rub Bill Cipher's defeat in his face. And finally she gets the opportunity. Based on Flat Dreams. Part 3 of A Different Form a Different Time.


_A/N: Third one-shot. Once again, this is based on Flat Dreams, so if you guys haven't read that this'll be a little confusing. Anyway, enjoy._

"He is awake."

"So soon?" Jheselbraum casts a look at at dimension 46'/, where Mabel Pines reaches to shake the hand of the monster they defeated only a year or so ago. "I would have expected at least a few more centuries."

"I'm sure you know that time is relative." The was a tone of amusement in the Ancient's words. "It has been a lot longer than that."

The Oracle takes that in, watching the events in Stanford's home dimension play out, and hums in amusement, "' _A different form'_ ," she repeats to herself, "You couldn't resist the irony, could you?"

The Axolotl chuckles, "Rather fitting, considering the many times humanity was deceived by him."

"And who brought him to his demise." she mutters. It is strange, seeing the used to be triangle in a completely different form, and she feels a certain satisfaction when he starts to panic, staring at his newfound body in shock. That's when Mabel Pines finally collects herself, putting her grappling hook to good use. "Looks like the universe is giving its tormentor a warm welcome."

Another chuckle. "What will you do now?"

She shrugs, her gaze still aimed at the two small Pines twins as they argue on what to do. She'd waited for a trillion years to see her mistakes paid for. And now, when Bill Cipher is finally getting what's coming for him, she can't help but feel a bit overwhelmed. Interfering now seems too soon. She'll stay, and wait her turn. For now, she has her own personal comedy to watch. If the Pines family handles him as well as they had so far, then she has nothing to worry about. Besides, she has a feeling her meeting with Bill Cipher wasn't that far away. A brief glimpse in the future tells her as much.

Then she'll rub his loss in his eye. Or eyes. Seems like he has two now.

"I'll stay." she answers finally, turning to her friend. "A confrontation now doesn't seem all that appealing."

"It's your choice." the Axolotl seems to have expected that from her. He gives a farewell nod before leaving. The temple seems quiet now, but it doesn't matter. There is a calm relief, now that Bill would not be posing a threat to anyone. And a certain anticipation, an emotion the Oracle hadn't felt in a very long time. She will wait, then. After a trillion years, waiting doesn't seem that hard at all.

…

"Wait, so you're the one that helped my uncle defeat Bill, right?"

"That would be me, yes." Dipper Pines is, as Jheselbraum soon finds out, extremely likable. He's smart, resourceful, and has a thirst for knowledge not unlike that of his great uncle. In only a few hours the boy manages to ask enough questions to fill a star system. She tries her best answering all of them, seeing as how they are somewhat predictable, yet some just have her at a loss of words.

"Can I get your autograph?"

"Um…"

"NEVERMIND THAT!" Mabel literally jumps in the conversation, pointing an accusing finger at her. "Tell me, if you're _really_ an oracle, how come you don't speak in rhyme?"

"Mabel, this isn't _Percy Johnson_ -"

"Shush, this is an important question."

While the younger Pines twin is subdued but thoughtful, the older one is the complete opposite. She's loud, lively, and a welcome change to the usual quiet of the temple. Unlike her brother, the questions Mabel asks are often slightly absurd even for the Oracle.

"It would be a pointless amount of effort to do so."

The girl seems to think it over, then nods approvingly. "Fair enough. Okay, but why are you purple?"

"...Symbolism."

Mabel gives another satisfied nod, "Gotcha." Her brother looks even more confused.

The Oracle's attention is briefly torn away from the children as she casts an unimpressed look at the balcony, where her third visitor sits with his back to her, trying his best to ignore all three of them. "He's always like that." Mabel supplies. "Plus, you know, you kinda helped defeat him and all that junk. He's probably still mad about that."

"Of course." Her tone turns cold, and the twins seem to flinch slightly at that. The Oracle noticeably softens her demeanor. "Why don't you two go explore?" she asks instead, careful to keep her voice friendly. Often times she ends up intimidating the mortals she converses with, and while that's understandable, it mostly makes her conversation with them...awkward. She's sure not to make the same mistake with the Pines children.

Judging by the brightened looks on both of their faces, that shouldn't be a problem. "Oh, we did," Dipper confesses eagerly, "though most of your books aren't in English, so kinda hard to..read. I wrote some stuff down though, so-"

"And I found a lazer gun!" Mabel cuts off her brother, "Or I think it was a lazer gun. Maybe it's a can opener...it looks like a gun. And you've got a lot of weird gadgets, lady. Where do you get them all, some kinda sci-fi black market?"

"Yes, a lot of the parts come from...interesting places." she smiles, the two lower eyes crinkling in amusement. The girl's enthusiasm seems to be contagious, and the Oracle doesn't mind at all.

"Wait, so what kind of stuff do you actually have? Can you show me? I mean, you don't have to I just- yeah sorry, it's just _so cool_."

That _is_ flattering, extremely so, despite the fact that the boy is slowly running out of air. "I'll be glad to show you sometime, but for now, I'm sure you'd want to see what the rest of this dimension is like." The Oracle gestures toward the balcony, where far below them the valley extends into the fading sun on the horizon. The village lights were just starting to appear, blinking serenely in the distance.

The two human children stare at her dimension in silence, before Mabel brakes it with a whoop of joy. "YES! Wait…" she glances back down at the settlement warily, "It's not gonna be like last time, right? Cause we kinda pissed off an alien princess, and then these giant buff guards started chasing us. Through one of them was kinda cute…"

"Correction, _Bill_ pissed her off." Dipper glares at the figure who made himself comfortable on her terrace.

"Bill pisses everybody off." the boy's twin shrugs. "I don't know what's so surprising."

"Good point."

After she assures them that her dimension is one of the safest they could possibly visit, Jheselbraum hands both of them translators and sends them on their way. To think that the two were running around without one. No wonder their journey hadn't been that pleasant.

The woman finally turns her attention to the elephant in the room. Bill Cipher. The monster she'd worked most of her trillion year old life to defeat is now sitting on her stoop like it's nothing, so the least she could do is give him a nice warm welcome. The Oracle fixes her seven-eyed stare on the back of his head, silently watching. The tension in the room winds up, ready to burst as soon as one of them speaks. Of course, the one that eventually does is Bill. "Whatever you gotta say, say it already." he doesn't turn around, but she can tell by his tone he is angry. That is not surprising in the least.

"I have nothing to say to you."

"Oh come on! What, don't even wanna gloat about anything? That stupid piece of metal in Sixer's head, maybe? Or maybe that unicorn spell you were so eager to share with him? Don't think I didn't notice it was you." the demon finally turns around to give her a humorless sneer. Jheselbraum, in turn, keeps her expression calm, devoid of any fury she might be feeling right now. That only seems to fuel his own anger. "Let me guess: the big frilly got you those eyes, didn't he? I betcha you're one of the guys whose dimensions I freed, right? And you were pissed because you couldn't take a little _change_. So he offered you some kinda deal, to "stop his chaos", yada yada, and you took it because you were so eager to play _hero_. Did I get it right? I bet I did, didn't I?" he fixes her a mirthless smile. It seems like Cipher tried his hardest to find the words that would best get a reaction out of her. To be fair, it was a pretty good try. But considering that it's exactly what the Oracle expects from him, it doesn't prove to be very effective.

"Yes. I suppose there's some truth in it." As tempted as she is, she doesn't mention that the dimension he destroyed was hers as well. So far, Bill Cipher did not give any hint that he knows her identity. She'd like to keep it that way, for the time being. It's interesting to see how long it will take until he figures it out. Perhaps he won't. It _has_ been a trillion years after all, easy for him to forget. "Though some respect could be shown for the Ancient. He's the reason you're still here, after all."

"Oh yeah, thanks! Feels great to be me! Except _I'm not, am I_?" Bill raises his voice almost to the point of shouting, and it echoes through the temple, leaving an uncomfortable heat in the air. "SO YEAH, THANKS FOR PUTTING ME IN THIS USELESS SKIN PUPPET."

"The alternative would be death." _Though you deserve a lot worse than that._

Bill falls silent, turning away abruptly to stare at the valley below. It isn't hard to guess what he is thinking, she spent too much time observing him not to know. In this body he is mortal, the maximum he could live is 6 or 7 more decades. A long time for most, but for beings like themselves, it was nothing but a blink. To Bill, this form is nothing but prolonging the inevitable. No doubt it scares him.

Good.

"So, which dimension was it, anyway?" he asks suddenly, faking amusement. "22? 1.357? 666/513? Oooh, I bet it was one of those flowery, happy-go-lucky ones like this one, huh? Too bad it's ALL GONE NOW. The nightmare realm's got more use for it than the idiots that lived there." he pauses, turning to stare viciously in all seven of her eyes. "And you're still here, taking the 'moral highroad' or whatever. _Helping people_. And what did they ever do for you, huh? Nothing. Soon enough they'll forget all about you, because mortals only care about what concerns them. So you've 'defeated me', congrats. Here's a gold star, you're free to go. What now, Seven-Eyes? Too bad nobody knows what you did, right? Nobody cares. You'll just stay here, alone, dancing to _his_ tune. Hope you're HAPPY about that." Jheselbraum casts long, cold look back at the demon. It seems that the horrifying one-eyed beast is now reduced to nothing but a pathetic kicked puppy, whose bark is far worse than his bite. Though the Oracle has to admit, it's a bit impressive. For him, this is technically the first time they've ever met, and Cipher still finds something about her that actually hits its mark.

There's a temptation to march over to the demon and shake him, to give him a harsh reminder that the only reason he is still alive is because of the mercy of those whom he has wronged. To rub his loss in his face, to remind him that he is nothing but a pathetic little man now, with not even a scrap of the power he had before. Nora wants to take all those millennia of hurt and hopelessness and anger and hurl it back in his stupid ignorant face, and make him feel at least a fraction of what she felt because of him. That was what she had planned to do.

But something holds her back.

Spotting the hesitancy, Bill looks ready to spout something else, but loses his nerve when she shoots one look at him. The Oracle finds herself fiddling with her pendant, a nervous habit she had developed a few millenia ago. It catches the demon's eye, and from the corner of her vision she can see him staring at it, an unreadable look on his face. She drops her hand, leaving to tinker with one of her personal projects, though her attention is elsewhere, and the action seems more like a need to keep herself busy than anything else. After an eternity of waiting, that method of occupying her time seems common to her. All she does is wait, and the Oracle can't help but feel frustrated just at the familiarity of it. She waited most of her existence to see Bill Cipher defeated, and waited for the right moment to rub that defeat in his face. But now, she can't even bring herself to say anything, and the waiting game begins anew. Except now she is waiting for the twins to come back, and hopefully distract her from the thoughts of the past that keep on surfacing, despite her best efforts to snuff them out.

And, as if to her own silent plea, the children do come back, holding an assortment of trinkets that they seem to have acquired free of charge and chatting amiably with each other. "You're such a nerd, Dip Dop!"

"Hey! This thing could be really useful, you know?" Dipper waves a small book around, and Jheselbraum could just make out the title: _A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Multiverse._

Well. At least he would get a laugh out of it. Once the disappointment clears away.

"Besides," the boy continues, "who gets a freaking pillow when they visit another dimension?"

"Actually," the Oracle gestures at the woven mass of cloth in Mabel's arms, "It's a bagpipe."

"Ooh," the girl looks down at her new-found souvenir. "So like an interdimensional bagpipe?"

"No, a regular one." The two blink simultaneously down at the object.

"How did it-"

"Who cares!" Mabel squeezes the instrument in a strange sort of hug, making it emit a small tooting noise. "I'm keeping it!"

"Alright, just make sure not to break it." the Oracle smiles at the girl. Yes, Mabel Pines is extremely likable. There is a sort of nostalgic feel she can't shake away when taking to the child, though in all honesty she cannot place where it's coming from. "I believe it is time for you to be heading back. Your family is extremely worried about you."

"Oh man," Dipper drops the books he's been holding and grips the sides of the hunting hat he's wearing. "The Grunkles! They're probably freaking out right now. Mabel, we gotta go back! Uh-" he turns to her pleadingly. "How do we go back?"

The Oracle reaches for something cluttered among the shelves that she's been saving a while ago for this exact occasion. She hands it to the boy carefully. "These are dimensional scissors. They would be able to get you back to your dimension safely. But," she explains as the two twins look at them quizzically. "These are only good for three uses. So please don't go joyriding."

"Aye aye, captain!" Mabel salutes playfully. "Hey Bill, quit sulking, it's time to go home!" The demon, who left her balcony a while ago to stare at the hydrodisplacer she had assembled a few weeks before with mild interest, turns to look back at the girl with a confused sort of frown. "Home?"

"You know, the Shack!"

"Oh, right."

Dipper inspects the scissors. "It looks like one of those kiddie ones for arts and crafts. Uh, no offence," he remarks quickly at her, blushing in embarrassment, "It's just- how do you use them? Just cut the air or-?"

Bill stanches them away with an annoyed growl, dismissively slicing through the fabric of reality, leaving behind a glowing blue cut where spacetime had divided to provide a pathway through. "Great, LET'S GO."

"Wait!" Mabel looks back at the woman, still clutching the slightly battered bagpipe. "We'll meet again, right?"

Jheselbraum winks with three of her eyes. "Sooner than you think."

The girl beams, waving one last time, before fearlessly dragging a nervous looking Dipper and an impatient looking Bill right through the portal.

"I'll be watching you, Norm." The demon freezes at the nickname, turning around to look back at her in newfound shock. Or more exactly, at her pendant. His eyes then dart up to her face, a striking realization in them that is hard not to catch on to. He opens his mouth to say something, only to be dragged into the portal by Mabel's impatient grip. The Oracle watches the three disappear, and then the rip in reality closes, leaving the temple quiet and empty once again.

And for the first time in a trillion years, she breaks down laughing.

…

A week passes by before Bill Cipher finally returns, dimensional scissors in hand and looking ten times more livid than before.

"I take it you've figured it out by now." She says, calmly watching the demon out of the corner of her bottom left eye. Cipher looks like he's just about ready to break something, and her relaxed demeanor only seems to fuel his unrelenting anger. She tries not to smile in amusement.

" _I thought you were_ _dead_."

The last word seems to hover heavily in the air for a moment, and the Oracle blinks in surprise, turning around fully to stare back at her visitor. Enacouraged by her stunned silence, Bill keeps going, his volume growing with every word. "A TRILLION YEARS, and not even a 'hey Bill, how's it going? By the way, I'm totally fine, living it up in my fancy mansion on a freaking mountain, not a pile of dust and ashes at all, WHY WOULD YOU THINK THAT?' SERIOUSLY, _WHAT THE HELL, NORA?_ "

She pushes back her surprise and tries not to wince at that name, the one she hadn't heard in quite a while. "Is that what you are mad about?"

"Oh trust me, I've got a whole list. THAT just takes the cake. I thought you were _dead_ , and you just show up like it's no big deal with your-haha-" he cuts himself off with laughter, gripping a nearby column to keep himself upright. "Wow, okay. The whole 'wise, ancient oracle' shtick? Real clever of ya, Nora, hard to guess it was _you_ under that." he sobers up then, renewing his glare.

"That's not my name anymore." she remarks, watching as he sputters indignantly.

"No your- _are you serious_?" Bill throws his hands up. "That's THE MOST CLICHE THING I EVER HEARD YOU SAY. WHERE DID YOU GET THAT FROM, SOME B-RATED SOAP OPERA?" He points an accusing finger in her direction. "OH YEAH, LIKE 'JHESELBRAUM' IS WAY BETTER. IS YOUR LAST NAME YOUR POSTAL ADDRESS, TOO?"

She blinks, considering how off kilter this conversation is going. Then again, this is Bill. "I...don't think that's relevant."

"NO IT ISN'T! But you wanna know what is? YOU TRYING TO KILL ME!"

This is a little more of what she had expected. Jheselbraum's expression turns from surprised to cold once again. "Actually, I believe I've succeeded." The way he opens and closes his mouth, not knowing what to say, makes her snort under her breath. "What, the great Bill Cipher has nothing to say now? And here I thought you were a maser with words." She looks away to examine the edge of her sleeve. "I guess dying changed that."

"YOU- WHY WOULD-"

" _Why do you think?"_ The spark of anger, the one that's been death for so long finally ignites, and burns in a cold, unmasked fury as the Oracle slowly walks up to him. Bill notices the change, and almost subconsciously backs away a few steps as she looms over him. "I watched dimensions _burn_ and people _die_ just because you thought it might be _fun_. Do you know how many I've met that suffered because of you? Stanford Pines was no where near the worst case, oh no. There were people whose minds you've _shattered completely_ because you _felt like it_. Beings whose scars were too deep to ever heal, and _I had to put them back together again._ So many I've watched that suffered because of _my_ mistake, because _I believed what you promised me_. And what did you promise me, Bill?"

 _Make it worth something._

 _I will._

"Well, _did you?_ "

Bill, who had been glaring at her as she talked, suddenly flinches away as if she were yelling, despite her voice being only slightly above a whisper. He looks to the side, biting his lip and not saying a word, and even though her mind is now clouded with anger Jheselbraum can't help but notice how strange it is. The scenario she had seen had Bill yell back at her, defending the chaos he created, and giving her an excuse to throw him off her mountain.

He does none of those things, and it strikes the Oracle just how different this seems to be from how he had acted a week ago. And she berates herself for all this time not even taking a glance at Gravity Falls, because she has no idea what could have possibly happened to make him act this way.

"So, you're not happy about that."

Jheselbraum blinks down at him, and resists the sudden urge to laugh. "Now why would you think that?" she asks, the anger no longer present. She is still looming over him, and Bill only seems tense, something between fear and disappointment in his expression. The Oracle takes a small moment to note just how small he is compared to her. Nothing like the terrifying demon he made himself to be. She steps back finally, giving him space to breathe. Bill straightens out, only to fiddle with the sleeve of his sweater awkwardly. The bright yellow color and the big, black eye on the front has Mabel's handiwork written all over it. That girl is a bit too open, a bit to accepting for her own good. "If you have something to say to me, say it now. Those scissors only have one more use, after all."

That is an unsubtle message to get out. Bill takes it without comment. "You kept it." he says instead, gazing at the pendant she's wearing. The original grey has been gone for a long time, replaced with an intense dark purple that seems to absorb all light. So he still remembers it as well, despite how different it looks now. She regards the necklace with a detached sort of acceptance and offers him no explanation, partly because she is tired, the anger draining most of her energy, and partly because she has none. "You can go now," is all she says instead. "The sun is almost rising."

"Fine." He says not without a hint of rejection. There is a sound of reality splitting at the seams, and then he is gone.

Jheselbraum gazes at the brightening hizon, watching as the sun showers Dimension 52 in a gentle golden glow. Her grip is on her pendant. It's like the layers of hurt she kept buried for eons had emerged again, and the Oracle doesn't quite know what to do. So she stares at the valley down below, and tries not to think about the conversation that just happened.

"He is still angry." Well, that proves to be futile, and she turns to face her second visitor with a small frown. The Axolotl makes a sound not unlike a sigh, and his presence does seem to soothe the soothsayer somewhat. "I'm sure you aren't very surprised at that."

"What...happened?" she asks instead, eyes still directed at the horizon line. She absentmindedly rubs her pendant, and realizes that she is anxious. "Why is he-?"

"I'm afraid you'll have to ask him that yourself." she could hear the slight smile in the being's voice. "His bubble cracked, and of course the All-Seeing Eye was not left unscathed. No matter what he wishes you to believe." He regards her patiently for a while, before his gentle voice breaks the silence once again. "Will you join them?"

Jheselbraum finally tears away from the scene outside to look at the piece of parchment that had made it to her only a short time ago. Stanford Pines had found a way to reach a dimension as remote as hers, and the Oracle can't help but be impressed. "In a while," she replies, hand on her pendant once again. "I...need to think."

There is a silent acknowledgement, and then she is alone again. One of the few things Bill had gotten right simply by looking at her. In the silence, there is finally nothing to distract the Oracle from her concerns, and for once the concerns are about the past as much as they are about the future. Well, no, that wasn't quite true. The future still worried her a whole lot more, and for good reason. The Oracle makes the mistake of, once again, glancing at what lies ahead.

 _And sees nothing but flames._


End file.
